Sequoias and the Drought

Sequoias and the Drought

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 170 , Segment 3

Episode: Counterterrorism, All Souls Day, Sequoias, Careers for Millennials

  • Nov 2, 2015 10:00 pm
  • 13:58 mins

Guest: Anthony Ambrose, PhD, Tree Biologist at UC Berkeley  The largest known living tree on the planet is named “General Sherman.” It’s a Giant Sequoia in California, tall as a 25-story skyscraper and 100 feet wide at the base. Picture a trunk larger than a pro-basketball court. General Sherman is estimated to be more than 2000 years old.  If you’ve visited Sequoia National Park, you felt how immense and permanent these trees seem. But might they have met their match in the record-breaking drought that grips California?

Other Segments

Tech Transfer: Seed Coatings

23 MINS

Guests: Matthew Madsen, PhD, Professor of Plant Science at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office  Western wildfires have become more frequent and more intense in the last several decades – partly because of an invasive weed called cheat grass. It springs up fast and is unappetizing to cattle, sheep and wild birds like the sage grouse. So, come peak fire season, the cheat grass is prime tinder. And once a blaze sweeps through the range, what do you suppose grows back quickest?  Cheat grass, because it doesn’t need much water and it easily beats out native grasses.  Rangeland managers and researchers are spending millions of dollars in a race to give those native grasses a better chance.  More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.

Guests: Matthew Madsen, PhD, Professor of Plant Science at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office  Western wildfires have become more frequent and more intense in the last several decades – partly because of an invasive weed called cheat grass. It springs up fast and is unappetizing to cattle, sheep and wild birds like the sage grouse. So, come peak fire season, the cheat grass is prime tinder. And once a blaze sweeps through the range, what do you suppose grows back quickest?  Cheat grass, because it doesn’t need much water and it easily beats out native grasses.  Rangeland managers and researchers are spending millions of dollars in a race to give those native grasses a better chance.  More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.